ABSTRACT
A principal difference between thematic and non-thematic buildings is apparent in the character of their primary volumes. Professional architecture that tends to involve larger non-thematic projects often straddles tradition and innovation in a fusion of new and traditional forms, materials, systems and building methods. Thematic design emphasizes awareness of the fundamentally hierarchical and systematic composition of environmental settings and of the typical repetitive systems, patterns and elements that frame our environment. Organizing complex form according to the logic of assembly based on physical hierarchy is only one among many ways in which buildings can be understood. Whether design involves traditional building methods and materials or pre-engineered and pre-configured industrialized systems and kits of parts, configurations are composed or transformed by combining, disassembling, changing out or reconfiguring various component parts. However, as the character of built environment grows increasingly diverse, traditional building types and forms now coexist with buildings that house evolving lifestyles and settings with technical, material and stylistic innovation.
